Ames, Ia. – U.S. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican, said tonight he was impressed with Michele Bachman’s first-place finish in the Iowa straw poll and he predicted her campaign will only grow stronger prior to February’s Iowa Caucuses.

“I think that it showed that the personality and the charisma and the candidacy of Michele Bachmann eclipsed the best of efforts to try to build an organization to try to get people to people to come to the straw poll,” King said. “She hasn’t built a strong organization in this state. When she builds that underneath her campaign I think she is going to look really strong in Iowa.”

King hasn’t endorsed any presidential candidate. He visited the campaign tents here Saturday of Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Santorum. He added he won’t make an endorsement at least until after Labor Day, although he said of Bachmann: “She is a good friend.”

The Iowa congressman declined to say if he expects former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to drop out of the race after an eighth-place finish in the straw poll. Nor did he want to speculate on any other presidential candidates possibly leaving the race.

“I wouldn’t want to predict it. I don’t want to nudge anybody in any direction. It is a hard, hard decision they have to make themselves,” King said